Wednesday, May 28, 2008

So, I just played through Kirby's Dream Land (For those of you that don't know, Kirby's Adventure for the NES was actually the Sequel to the Game Boy Game) and I must say, the series lost a little something from the transition. Don't get me wrong, I loved Kirby's Adventure (It's one my all time favorite NES Games) but now having played the original, there are a few things that were lost in the Transition (Which is odd considering that the NES is head and shoulders more powerful than the Game Boy).

First off, the games play the same for the most part. Mechanically, the main difference between the two is the "Copy" ability, which is now a series staple, originated in the NES Game. In the Game Boy version, you could still inhale enemies, but they didn't give you any abilities, and instead you only spit them back out as projectiles, which you could still do in the NES version, but in Dream Land, this was your main offensive maneuver (Where in Adventure some enemies gave you other abilities that replaced your ability to inhale, and were frequently more powerful/fun to use. :P ). Now this seems like something that was "Improved", but in doing so, some of the enemies that were interesting, or slightly more challenging became a joke on the NES (The Key Example being Scarfy. When you attempt to inhale him, he turns from a Happy little Red Dude who bounces in place, to a psychotic looking red dude that homes in on Kirby and Explodes on contact. O.o As you generally have another ability at your disposal, after encountering him once, you never have to worry about attempting to inhale him in future). Not only that, but while the literal variety of enemies was improved, the "Personality" of the enemies wasn't as varied(Since they had all these new "Ability Enemies" now, they used them for variety, and while it did spice it up, the non-ability enemies lost something in the transition).

Personality is the other thing I noticed. The Game Boy version has charm, and quirky characters. While yes the NES iteration certainly had plenty of that, it was at the cost of well... nothing exactly, but the NES version was Neapolitan and I kinda liked my Chocolate. I guess that's my main thing, Dream Land was a fun platformer, that when you beat it, gave you the option to play an "Extra Game", which like the "Extra Game" in the Original Legend of Zelda, was a re-mastered, and harder version of the game. The level layouts were the same, but not only were New Enemies introduced, but old enemies were given new abilities (It's enough of a real step up in the difficulty department, that I still after two attempts haven't beaten it... "Extra Game" Kracko PWNS my Noob Arse... ;P). While in Adventure, the "Extra Game" is the same exact game, with your life halved... Harrowing I know...

It's a trend that I'm noticing though. It seems that less effort is put into "Additional Content", and personally I feel the overall product suffers from it. Yes, I know that with rising development costs... yada yada... Fiercer Competition... Blah, de Blah... Higher Overhead... Loop ti Loo... and etc. It's "Riskier" to include content that the majority of people may never experience, but in such a "Competitive" market, wouldn't you want to stand out, more than blend in? See... "Extra Content" used to be a way for a developer to say, "Yes, we appreciate the effort you've put into this game, here's a little (Or "a Lot of" in the Two Examples I've given) something to show that. For those of you who played Legend of Zelda, who didn't here about the "Extra Quest", and then get all giddy to have it?